Naughty New Year (2 page)

“Evan…”

“I’m sorry,” he
said interrupting her.

“You don’t have
anything to be sorry for.”

“Yes I do. I
shouldn’t have made you do something you weren’t comfortable doing.”

“It’s okay,
Evan.”

“No, it’s not.
I’ve upset you and I didn’t mean to. I just thought…”

“I’m not upset.”

She put down her
empty plate and angled her body toward him. She hated to see the hurt in his
eyes thinking that he had somehow let her down when that wasn’t the case at
all. She put her hand out and smoothed away the hair from his eyes. Then she
took his empty plate and set it on top of her own on the table.

When she turned
back to him, he pressed his mouth against hers and held the kiss. His hand
brushed against her breast as he readjusted the blanket around them so that
their bodies could press together. Evan leaned back against the couch as the kiss
intensified and pulled her along with him so that her chest was flat against
his and his hands massaged the length of her back. The crackle of the flames
was the only sound apart from their breathing which grew heavy as they
continued to kiss and explore each other. She could hardly believe that her
body still craved him so desperately after being satisfied several times
already. She was starting to think that she could never get enough of him. She
pulled herself into his lap with her legs straddled over him. He was ready for
her again and she intended to have him.

“Stay with me,”
he whispered into her hair as she eased herself over him and bent forward. He
gasped.

“Yes,” she said
breathless and already reveling in the sensations that he ignited inside her.

With every
moment that she spent with him, she risked her heart. She was well aware of
this fact but when it came to Evan, she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

Chapter 2

After a shower
and dressing in the jeans and sweater that she’d worn over to Evan’s house the
previous day, Michelle fished out her phone from her purse to check messages.
She’d let her parents know that she wouldn’t be coming home and they could
reach her at Evan’s number if they needed her so she really didn’t expect to
find any missed calls. She was surprised to find that she had three text
messages all from the same number. Her heart stopped when she saw the sender.

Steve. Why on
earth would he be messaging her now? Was there a problem with the divorce
papers?

She heard the
sound of the water turn on as Evan started his own shower so she took a deep breath
and sat down before opening the messages. She relaxed on the couch where she
and Evan had had sex more than once just the previous night and sighed. The
night with him had been nothing short of amazing and she was glad that in the
end, she had decided to stay. Not only were the roads bound to have been a mess
but sleeping in his arms had been magical, what little time they’d actually
spent sleeping.

The first
message told her that Steve needed to talk to her and it was urgent so please
call him. She sighed. It was just like Steve to say something like that without
any detail as to what he wanted to discuss. She tried to calm her pounding
heart and opened the second message. It said almost the same thing giving no
knew information. She opened the third message but this one made her groan out
loud.

“What’s wrong?”

She turned
around surprised to find Evan standing in the doorway with nothing but a towel
wrapped around his waist, fresh from the shower, and still dotted with drops of
water. He looked absolutely delicious and under any other circumstances, she’d
have been tempted to take advantage of him in such a vulnerable state.

“He’s on his way
to my parents’ house,” she mumbled quietly, still in shock after reading the
message.

“What? Who?”

“My ex-husband.”

“Why?” Now
Evan’s face looked almost as pale as she felt.

“I don’t know.
He said he needed to talk to me and apparently, it couldn’t wait. He took the
next flight out of Chicago and should arrive sometime this afternoon.”

“What are you
going to do?”

What could she
do, she wondered? She shrugged her shoulders. It was too late to tell him not
to come and she doubted it would have done much good anyway. Like it or not,
she was going to have to face him.

“I have to go
back to my parents’ house anyway. I guess I will hear him out.”

“What if he
wants you back?” Evan’s voice sounded strained and she wondered for a moment if
he was truly worried he would lose her. Not her, of course, she reminded
herself, but her body.

“I’ll cross that
bridge when I come to it, I suppose.”

Michelle pushed
her arms into her coat and zipped avoiding eye contact with Evan. He was still
standing in the doorway wearing nothing but a towel and she knew that it was dangerous
to stay so close to him for too long. She needed to get back to her parents’
house, hopefully before Steve got there.

“Does this mean
our plans for New Year’s Eve are off?” he said watching her adjust her gloves
and hat.

“Why would you
think that?”

“Oh, I don’t
know, because your husband is back.”

“This probably
has more to do with a glitch in the paperwork than anything else,” she said
sighing, “We’ll sort it out and he’ll be on his way. It doesn’t change our
plans.”

Evan let out the
breath he’d been holding. “Good because I have big plans for us.”

“I’m sure it
will be wonderful.”

He moved forward
to kiss her but she resisted. He looked into her eyes searching them in
confusion.

“I’m sorry. I’m
just really confused right now,” she said at last. She lifted up on her toes
and kissed him lightly on his lips, lingering only long enough to inhale his
scent one last time. Why did she feel like she was saying goodbye? She
shouldn’t feel so sad when they’d barely had the chance to get to know each
other in the first place. It had been sex and nothing more. Mutually satisfying
and explosive, yes, but to him, nothing more than sex.

She turned and
let herself out the door before he could say anything else. She already felt
close to tears and she hated letting a simple text message from Steve get under
her skin so easily. When she did see him again, she was going to give him a
piece of her mind. What right did he have to keep playing with her heart? The
dramatics had to stop.

She sighed when
she got into her car. Evan had taken the time to clear off the snow while she
showered earlier. In the years that she’d been married to Steve, he’d never
done that sort of thing for her. She never minded so much at the time. She was
a grown woman after all and she didn’t need a man to take care of her. Their
marriage was a partnership in all ways and she could take care of things like
clearing the snow off her own car easily enough.

And yet, now
that Evan had made such a gesture, she felt a strange tingling inside her
belly, the same way she felt when he wrapped his arms around her and held her
close. Maybe she did want something more from a man than companionship. She’d
offered a different side to herself when she allowed Evan to bind her hands and
have his way with her. She didn’t expect to like
that
so much either and
yet, she couldn’t get it out of her mind.

Twenty minutes
later, she pulled into the driveway and turned off the radio but she wasn’t so
quick to turn off the engine. There was a blue Nissan Maxima rental car parked
off to the side and her heart skipped a beat at the sight of it. He was here.
He was in the house somewhere, probably sat down with her parents talking about
god knows what. She sighed and slammed her head back into the head rest. This
wasn’t the way she wanted to start her new year. She had thought all the
fights, anxiety, and confrontation were long behind her. She was finally ready
to move forward with her life. His being here opened all of that back up again
and left her feeling raw and exposed.

Reluctantly, she
cut the engine and stepped out of the car. By the time she’d closed the car
door, he was already coming out of the house to meet her on the sidewalk. She
cursed under her breath. He looked really good. Life was so unfair sometimes.

“Michelle…” He
reached forward to try to put his arms around her in a hug but she managed to skirt
around him and make her way into the house.

“What are you
doing here, Steve?” she said once she was inside. She still wouldn’t stop
moving. She didn’t dare to look at him. Let him say what he needed to say and
be done with it, she thought. If she had to look at him, she might fall apart
again.

“Did you get my
messages?”

“You told me you
were coming here but you didn’t tell me why.” She couldn’t stop the anger from
creeping into her tone. Being angry was better than being hurt.

“I told you I
needed to talk to you. I couldn’t do it over the phone. I needed to see you in
person.”

Michelle
deposited her coat, hat, and gloves unceremoniously in the hall closet and made
her way to the kitchen to prepare a cup of tea. She had to keep herself busy so
she didn’t go ballistic on him.

“Well, you can
see me now so whatever you need to say, just say it, okay?”

“Can we go
somewhere to talk in private?”

“Whatever you
need to say to me, you can say to my family.”

“Michelle…”

Even though she
couldn’t see her parents, she knew they were probably somewhere close by
listening to every word. Their presence gave her some semblance of confidence
even if she knew that she would fall to pieces the minute Steve walked out the
door again.

“Is there a
problem with the papers? Is your new girlfriend pregnant? What the hell Steve?
Just say it and get out of my life once and for all. You can’t keep doing this
to me. You could have at least waited until I got back to Chicago.”

“Michelle, I
miss you.”

She put down the
mug and tea bag and rested her weight against her arms on the counter still
keeping her back to him.

“What?”             

“I’m still in
love with you. I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. That whole thing with
Sharon, I mean, it was crazy, I know, and I hurt you more than I can ever
imagine, but I’m not in love with her, Michelle. She doesn’t make me feel the
way that you do. I couldn’t file the divorce papers. I couldn’t go through with
it and I realized that the reason I couldn’t do it is because I’m not ready to
give up on us yet.”

“Well, that’s
just peachy,” she said feeling even more annoyed. She wasn’t going to win the
fight against the tears. She could feel one slip past and trace a line down her
cheek. She wiped it away absently.

“It’s the truth.
I want you to come home to me.”

“You’ve got to
be kidding me.”

“Look, I know
this is sort of coming out of the blue and I know you have a lot of reasons not
to trust me anymore but that’s why it was so urgent that I talk to you in
person. I want you to know how serious I am about making it up to you. I want
us to work this out. I need you in my life, Michelle. Please look at me.”

She remained
fixated on the counter staring down at her mug of steaming tea trying to come
up with something to say but words failed her. She wanted to be angry. She
wanted to scream at him for how much he had hurt her but she couldn’t will the
emotions to surface. Instead she just stared at the tea and felt nothing at all.

Steve stepped
tentatively behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She resisted the
urge to pull away from him even though the contact was making her
uncomfortable. He was her husband, after all, and since he hadn’t submitted the
divorce papers, that meant he was truly still her husband. She thought of the
days she’d spent in Evan’s arms and her stomach twisted in knots for all the
wrong reasons. She was going to miss seeing him.

“Please hear me
out,” he said.

“Why should I
Steve? After all you put me through? Why should I take you back just because
you suddenly changed your mind? What about Sharon? I thought you moved in to
her place?”

“I know, I know.
I’ve been a horrible husband to you. But I’m your husband, Michelle, and you’re
the only woman that I want to be with. Things didn’t work out with Sharon. She just isn’t the right woman for me.”

“Yeah, well
three months ago you thought differently and now I’m supposed to just take you
back like none of that ever happened?”

Steve sighed and
let go of her, leaning back to prop himself against the counter with arms
folded. She stole a glace over at him. He slumped in defeat and despite her
better sense, her heart went out to him. She hated to see him like that.

He shrugged.

“I don’t know
what I was thinking, I guess. I just hoped you would give me a second chance.”

“You took me off
guard.”

“Is there
someone else?” he asked softly.

“What?”

“Does he mean
something to you?”

“Steve…”

“Your parents
told me you were with a friend.”

“And you just
assume that I’m with another man?”

He shrugged it
off. She cursed her parents under her breath for not being able to keep their
mouths shut about Evan. Up until ten minutes ago, she thought she was on the
road to divorce. Now she didn’t know what to think.

“It’s no big
deal,” she said.

“Did you sleep
with him?”

“Why are you
asking me this? It’s none of your business what I do with anyone. You left me
to be with someone else, remember? Someone that you were sleeping with long
before you broke up with me.”

“You’re right,
I’m sorry. I’m trying to gage my competition, I guess. That’s all.”

“He’s not
competition.”

“Good. I’m glad
to hear that because you know I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d lost you
to someone else.”

He stepped
closer again and used his index finger to tip her chin so that she was looking
him in the eye. She tensed, expecting him to lean down and kiss her but he
didn’t move.

“This isn’t
fair,” she whispered.

“I know I hurt
you. Just please tell me you’ll give me another chance. Everything that we
talked about before our separation… the family you wanted so desperately to
start… I realize I want those things too. I want them more than anything with
you.”

She swallowed
hard forcing the tears back again. Why couldn’t he have said these things three
months ago? Everything now felt so complicated. She was so close to moving back
home and starting her life all over again and she was okay with that. Why
couldn’t he just let her go?

“Steve… I just
…”

“You need time.
I know. And I’m going to prove to you that I mean it this time.”

“I don’t know
what to say.”

“Don’t say
anything. Just think about what I said and have dinner with me tonight.”

“Okay.”

He smiled at her
and she saw the hope in his eyes. All she wanted to do was run away and hide
under the blanket.

“I’m staying at
the Holiday Inn in town,” he said, “but I will be back to pick you up at six
tonight. Does that work for you?”

“Yes, I will be
here.”

“Good. Oh, and
Michelle, wear something nice.”

He leaned down
and brushed his lips lightly against hers. She closed her eyes and waited for
some spark between them but nothing happened and the kiss was over too soon.
She opened her eyes and he was already saying goodbye and walking out of the
kitchen. She didn’t follow him to the front door. She didn’t dare to move while
she waited for the sound of the front door to close. She braced herself for her
mother.